Port Macquarie Sailing Club

26-4-26

THE Port Macquarie Sailing Club held their final race of the season on Sunday, Summer Series Race 9. All week the report had been for very little wind, if any, for the day, so expectations of actually getting a race in were not high. Despite this, 9 monohulls rigged ready to race hoping the very light Easterly forecast did eventuate, and eventuate it did, not terribly strong, but quite sailable. Combined with a warm, mostly sunny day and a low tide at the start that gained strength as it ran in during the race, it was a lovely finale for the season. Paul Robertson volunteered to do the duty and set a good size 3 lap course. The start was a loose downriver work to Port buoy A off Stevens Street, a run across to Port buoy B just off the mouth of Limeburners Creek, a loose work upriver that turned into a broad reach as the fleet rounded the curve of King Point to the final Port buoy C across the river from the Governors Way Canal, then a final work to the start/finish line to complete the lap. By the 3^rd lap, the light breeze was showing signs of starting to ease, so Paul moved Port buoy A back to Girraween Road and shortened the course, meaning that after rounding this buoy, it was just a loose work back to the finish line.

There were no catamarans sailing as 3 of them, Frank O’Rourke on ‘Zero’, Tony Kuhn on ‘Stella’, and Scott and daughter Abbey Witchard on ‘Lukim-Yu’ raced at Speers Point Amateur Sailing Clubs’ 3 race Anzac Day Regatta on the Saturday.

In the Monohull division, with the breeze much more consistent than previous weeks, there was a lot of close racing in the fleet. Rob Barwick in his Impulse ‘Drift’ took the yardstick win by 20 seconds over Jeff Walsh in his Impulse ‘Serenity’. Steve Couch in his Laser Radial ‘Lazybuoy’ was 3^rd ahead of Simon Gandy and Ezra Mert in their MG14 ‘Vamos’ despite ‘Vamos’ actually crossing the finish line 2 seconds (the spinnaker pole) ahead of ‘Drift’ before yardsticks were applied. Germain Corthals came in 5^th sailing the Club Laser with a full rig despite actually crossing the line 38 seconds ahead of ‘Lazybouy’, the difference being the Yardstick penalty for the bigger sail. Dave and Hudson McNeill in their Tasar ‘Toy of Joy’ were 6^th, Gary Herbert in his Radial rigged Laser ‘Allegro’ was 7^th, and Jock Simson and Logan McNeill in another Tasar ‘Voyager’ took the 8^th place after a slow start due to getting a cockpit full of water just before the start gun. Lucy Bohlsen sailed her Flying 11 ‘Popcorn’ single handed but after a capsize on buoy A and struggling with the light breezes, pulled out towards the end of the 2^nd lap.

The handicap results were the same order as the yardstick results – ‘Drift’, 7 seconds ahead of ‘Serenity’, ‘Lazybuoy’ ‘Vamos’, the Club Laser, ‘Toy of Joy’, ‘Allegro’, and ‘Voyager’.

Now that the sailing part of the season has concluded, the final event is the presentation night at the clubhouse on Saturday 9^th May.

By Jeff WALSH